96 Canadian Record of Science. 
of both these plants in Georgia and South Carolina, almost 
at the northern limit of their range, stand first in com- 
mercial rank in their respective markets. Indian corn, or 
maize, is sub-tropical, and in the West Indies grows to a 
height of 30 feet, but bears only a few stunted seeds, instead 
of the 125 bushels to the acre sometimes gathered in New 
York state, where the stalks are hardly one-eighth as high ; 
while the first prize for number of kernels and general 
perfection was given to corn grown last year near Winni- 
peg, in competition with the whole of the United States. 
The potato, indigenous to the equatorial zone, becomes 
really good only in the temperate zone, and finest of all in 
the more northerly localities. The Northwest can beat the 
world in its potatoes and tuberous vegetables generally— 
another outrage on poor Ireland ! 
As for wheat—everyone interested in these matters 
ought to read the remarkable facts stated by Mr. J. W. 
Taylor, U.S. Consul at Winnipeg, in his numerous writings 
and speeches on this subject. Here again it is along the 
northern part of its range that the best product is obtained 
The finest wheat grown in Kurope comes from the Baltic 
shores; and in the United States from Minnesota and 
Dakota; and in this important grain we have our most 
striking example of what the climate of the Canadian West 
is in relation to agriculture. In southern Minnesota, Iowa, 
etc., more than two well-formed grains of wheat are seldom 
found in each cluster or fascicle forming one of the rows in 
ahead In Manitoba and Assiniboia (where the shortness 
of the straw is surprising to a stranger), three grains are 
habitually found. This is an addition of one-third to the 
yield of each acre. That means 30 bushels on the average 
instead of 20—$15 instead of $10 an acre at present prices. 
But wheat grown along Peace River often shows four and 
five grains in the cluster ! 
This is not the whole of the story. The kernels are 
harder and better filled out than southward; and it is an 
established fact that varities of wheat classed as “ soft” in 
the Mississippi states regain their flinty texture and become 
“hard” in the Northwest. 
